Second Time Around
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: her world was fractured in the end, changing her from the person she had once been to one of the most bloody murderers that ever walked. The only trouble was...it wasn't her fault. Now she has a second chance at life, existence, and a better way to protect the very people that she killed. Minato/ Fem Naru. Rated M. my first Minato/Naru fic. Please tell me what you think!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello people- it's been a while hasn't it. I haven't stopped writing Naruto fics. in fact contrary to the wise, I've been busy branching out and attempting to rewrite and update some of my older stuff.**

 **Anyways- I wanted to try another time travel fic with a Minato/fem naru pairing. (although to keep it from totally being an incest fic Minato's DNA was overwritten by the Kyubbi) It'll be a slow burn story, but hopefully I can pull it off.**

 **I'm trying to get as much done as possible because my dad goes into have heart surgery this month after Thanksgiving. And once he has that done I won't be able to get on and work every hour of the day like i'm used too.**

 **So here is the new fic, please let me know what you think because I'm feeling kind of adrift here. And want to be sure that the fic is okay as far as the story line goes and such.**

 **Enjoy.**

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How did this happen?

How did it come to this?

If someone had asked Naru Uzumaki those two questions back before the war had began- she might have asked, how did what happen? Or how did what come to this? But the sad truth of things now was that she was simply too far gone to care one way or the other.

For as long as she could remember, her world had been fractured.

The beginning of the cracks in her reality started with Sasuke's defection and attempted murder of her at the valley of ends. After that things began to gradually snow ball and the cracks grew wider and more noticeable.

The way she conducted herself around others changed. Friends, comrades, sensei's, civilians- they all became just words with no true feeling or depth behind them.

Perhaps that was why once the war started, she never questioned the blackouts, lapses in judgement, _falling asleep in her tent and waking up covered in dried, rust colored blood._

But then why would she question any of it? She was the village idiot. The fool. Her job was to be the scapegoat and dumbass and make others look good.

Who cared if the demon had slowly, but surely lost any trace of her already withered and dying humanity and become a monster in every true sense of the word.

Everyday she would go out and do her job, fight, kill, save lives- _how was she supposed to know that something was controlling her and forcing her to take the very lives that she saved?_

She couldn't recall many of the events that had led her up to this point. She couldn't even recall what the world had been like before the war. Everything was simply gone. And perhaps it was for the best that she'd met this kind of end.

After all, hadn't she basically _murdered_ everyone that had ever meant anything to her?

Coughing around the blood rushing up her throat from her chest, from where her heart had once been, she could vaguely see the gaunt faces of her former teammates, Sakura, Sai, and Kakashi. While off to the left she could sense the presence of several others.

Hinata, Neji, Lee, Shikamaru, Ino, Gaara...

She coughed again, this time her blood spattering Kakashi's masked face as she struggled to draw breath. The poor man, he looked absolutely horrified. She wanted to wipe that look off of his face, tell him that it was alright. He hadn't done anything wrong. But all that came out was a wet gurgling sound, indicating that her blood was filling her lungs.

She blinked her eyes and felt something wet slip down her cheeks and would have frowned if she hadn't been in such excruciating agony.

"Naru..." Kakashi said in a pained tone as he slowly and carefully pulled his hand out of her chest and then wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest. "I-I'm so sorry I wasn't a better sensei to you. If I had been then maybe-" _Maybe this never would have happened_ , hung unsaid between them.

She wanted to tell him it was okay, she didn't mind so much anymore. That she knew that she had been the one person on their team that had needed him the least. But she couldn't speak through all of the _red, red, red, red, red_ that was coming out of her mouth and nose.

Choking her.

Suffocating her.

She felt some one taking her hand and let her eyes flicker away from Kakashi's face just long enough to see Gaara staring at her with sad aqua orbs as he held her hand. She was slowly beginning to lose consciousness now, her vision dimming a little more bit by bit as her lips quirked slightly.

This was really it wasn't it? She wondered as she felt the first actual stirrings of Kurama within the back of her mind. It was the first time he had awoken in a good long time and she had greatly missed his company even as he replied to her question.

 **This doesn't have to be it. The end... Tell me what you most wish for- within reason- and I will grant it to you.**

I want to go back to the beginning... I want to change this outcome and save them.

She felt Kurama give her a fanged smile and then...she felt nothing at all anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

The moment that she closed her eyes, she felt as if she were falling. Deeper and deeper into some dark abyss that she would never escape from, even if she had lived a thousand years.

She deeper she fell- the more she didn't feel the breaking and contorting of her bones, the repositioning of her organs, the readjustment of her body as it reshaped itself into that of a small child of nine years of age.

She didn't even know that the blond hair that she had once been so proud of, because of whom it reminded her of- had slowly began to change to a strawberry blond color that in time and with some serious washings- would look a tad bit pink while her once azure eyes were changing to a peculiar shade of violet purple.

The length of which had once reached down to her waist was now so much longer and fell to the backs of her knees. The reshaping and changing could have taken decades.

Or even the span of several moments.

However one of the most shocking changes was the sudden thumping that originated from within her chest, causing her to breathe through lungs no longer filled with liquid and oxygen starved as she landed, on her side in a small clearing in some forest somewhere- unconscious and unaware of what the fates had in store for her.

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Minato Namikaze sat on the top of the stone heads of monument mountain, staring out over the stretch of twinkling lights that spanned the entirety of the Leaf village, and sighed. Here he was, the leaf village's Kage- and he was pretty sure that he absolutely hated it.

And not just because of the shockingly high piles of paperwork that he found on his desk each morning either, though that in itself did cause some pretty bad headaches. No it was a combination of the responsibility to the village, the missions- much like the S-rank that sent so many good men and women to their deaths.

Much like the S-rank mission that Kushina had gotten from the third Hokage, Sarutobi, when she had still been fifteen. He could even recall begging her not to go- telling her that he had a terrible feeling about the mission.

How right he was to fear.

There hadn't even been enough of his long time girlfriend left to identify as a human being after the bastards she had been sent to keep an eye on- found her and took care of her. Of course he used the term, took care of, rather loosely. Unless one could call imprisonment, torture and multiple sexual assaults, taking care of someone.

But again those weren't the only reasons, he was sure that he hated being the Kage. Now don't get him wrong, for as long as he could remember being the Hokage of the village that he loved so much had been his one and only dream. However upon the realization of his dream, he had finally learned to be careful what you wished for.

Upon his inauguration he had found himself feeling torn.

Torn between happiness and sadness as he had learned the true meaning of what it meant to be a Hokage. You never had any privacy, acts of war should be dealt with- swiftly and painfully in most cases as well as by one's own hands- you lost bits and pieces of yourself that made you human.

Your kindness, was considered a weakness.

Your compassion for another- could get you killed.

If you fell in love, you often couldn't stay close to the person you loved and wanted otherwise you ran the risk of getting him/her murdered by the enemy. Any children and grandchildren you somehow managed to have- had to be carefully hidden behind various shields.

One of which was a mountain of papers giving them a false name that could not be associated with your own. Another reason for the paper work was so that Danzo and the council couldn't go behind your back and collect anyone with serious shinobi talent and either assassinate them or brainwash and train them to kill and be killed on command of those who had absolutely _no_ right to do such things.

Any spouse that you found yourself saddled with couldn't know what was going on with the village, the threats within, nor any of the politics involved in keeping the village running. To know was to tempt fate. And to tempt fate was to have your spouse killed or used against you.

Lovers were okay, but only as long as they weren't close to you emotionally.

Blowing his long blond bangs out of his eyes, he started to reach his hands up so that he could lay back with his head on his hands on the ground when he felt something... _odd_ tingling along his senses. Sitting up straight again he narrowed his eyes and began to spread out his senses in an effort to pin point the source of the disturbance that suddenly had him on edge and slowly got to his feet the second that he found it.

There on the other side of the village, somewhere within the forest just beyond the wall. It was weak, faint even- but he could almost see it.

It wasn't a summons. Nor an animal.

It was a person, young, small, waif like, and... _injured_. Using his Flying Raijin technique he was gone from his prior place of rest and across the village in the forest in the blink of an eye. His feet deftly touching the ground as his eyes quickly scanned his surroundings for the...person in question.

His mind already going over scenarios that could have brought this person here and _why_.

Due to the fact that he could sense the injuries of the person, he couldn't help but wonder if perhaps they were a nin from a neighboring village or maybe even a refugee that had gotten attacked by some bandits or something. He knew that it couldn't have been an enemy nin seeking aid from his village- that would just be dumb.

Walking a good ways towards where he could sense the weird tingling, he suddenly found himself in a clearing and blinked at the small body laying in the middle of it.

"What the hell-" He muttered as he moved quickly to the child's side and reached out only to pull his hand back as if it were singed just so that he could look at his palm, and noted that even in the faint light of the moon filtering through the trees overhead- that there was blood on his hand and on the child.

In fact there was so much of it that he didn't know what was the little one's and what wasn't.

Frowning as he carefully shifted the child so that he/she lay on his/her back, he then took note of his/her features and made a mental note to apologize to the poor thing later for not realizing right away that she was a female. Her clothing were that of a shinobi, though everything was old, worn, and threadbare. Making it barely acceptable as clothing since it left little to nothing to the imagination.

He could make out the color of her skin through some places in her clothing. Especially her pants.

Blushing because he felt oddly about noticing such things, he moved on and noted the large gaping hole in her vest and the shirt that she must have been wearing underneath it. The edges around the hole looked as if she had been attacked by flames or perhaps even...lightening? However though the hole went from front to back, he could find no real physical evidence of a massive gaping wound.

Though he did notice a smaller one that looked raw and angry and was just a little bit smaller than the size of the child's fist. Though he was slightly puzzled about the injury, it's placement and appearance, he continued to check the girl over for a few moments longer before finally picking her up in his arms and returning to the village with his small burden in his arms.


	3. Chapter 3

Minato spent three days hanging around the hospital, waiting for the child to awaken after her injuries had been treated. That was thirty six mind numbing hours of doing nothing (not that he was complaining) with the exception of watching the paint on the walls age, and flake.

Why in one instance, he had been so desperate for something to do aside from watching the walls that he had started arranging the few pieces of furniture in the child's room and very nearly gotten himself kicked out.

Still, it wasn't like he had much else to do at the moment. Not with some shadow clones taking care of his normal daily work, and training his former genin teammate Hatake Kakashi.

Besides he'd been sitting here beside the child's bedside keeping an eye on things. Who knew if the ones who had attacked her were still on the prowl or not? And frankly he couldn't stand the thought of giving them a chance to finish her off if they were.

Besides that though...he felt that he was needed here for when she awakened.

She needed to know about the damage to her heart, and though it had been surgically fixed, there would be limitations placed on her for a while. At least several moths to a year, until she was completely healed.

Of course this meant that she would have to be careful doing training and such. Especially since he now knew that she was a shinobi- even if she wasn't one from the leaf village.

Plus he had some questions for her. Nothing too terrible, but things like, name, age, if she had any relatives present within the village then perhaps that might explain why she had come here, among other things. He also needed to know her shinobi rank, though he suspected that she perhaps was still either in the academy or a genin.

Certain country's tended to take children with talent right from the classroom and give them a rank and send them loose on the unsuspecting world. Those children were often used for missions that they should never even know of. Things like seduction missions, assassinations, and suicide missions.

Though he supposed that occasionally someone found a rare gem among the children within their nation's villages that simply weren't as expendable as the others. Mostly due to rare bloodline limits.

That was another thing that he needed to ask about, if she had any bloodline limits. Though from the way the doctors acted every time they came in to check her wounds- it was entirely possible that she had a latent bloodline ability. In fact such a ability may be the only real reason that she was able to reach the village to seek help, and stay alive.

If so- it must be something fairly impressive. And if so, he wondered if he could convince her to stay in the leaf and become one of the village shinobi. Although, he might go ahead and send her to the academy for a time. At least until her heart healed up enough for her to begin taking normal missions.

And even then, he'd send her on D-rank jobs to keep her from being overly stressed and such just for a few months or so before he would let her advance.

Sighing, he closed his eyes for a moment and wondered how much longer she would be unconscious when he heard rather than felt her shift on the narrow bed in which she lay. Opening his eyes, he quickly stood up and then moved to stand next to her for a moment and frowned as he noted that her once peaceful expression was somewhat twisted into a scowl before he heard her rasp out in a voice that was rough from disuse, "What are you looking at creep?" As she slowly opened her eyes to look up at him.

Violet collided with azure blue, and Minato felt his heart miss a beat before he gave her an awkward looking smile before saying, "Well hello to you too little one. And how are you feeling?"

"Like I've had a couple of really big mountains dropped on my frigging head." The child snapped as he slowly nodded his head in understanding, his bemused expression never faltering even for a second.

He got the feeling that this little one was a mite...well... _weird_. Not in a bad way, mind you. But definitely in an entertaining way. In fact if there was anyone that he knew that he could liken her personality to- it would probably be his old mentor, the toad sage Jiraiya.

"Are you in any pain or discomfort?" He asked, wondering if he should summon a nurse or something. The girl was silent now, almost as if contemplating how to respond when she finally replied,

"No more than I usually am. It's nothing that I can't handle."

To say that her response somewhat surprised him as well as piqued his curiosity, would be an understatement. "I see. Do you want me to call someone? The nurse? The doctor?"

"No."

"Very well," He said as he sat back down in the chair that he'd forced someone two days ago to bring into the room for him. "I would like to ask you a few questions, if your feeling up to it."

"Isn't that what you've already been doing?" The girl said in an somewhat irked tone as she slowly pushed herself upright on the bed and then looked around for a second before humming and muttering something under her breath.

"I would like to get started if you don't mind."

The girl reached over to the bedside table where her bedpan sat and then picked it up and extended it out to him, reaching to on reflex, he took it from her small hand as she gave him an chilling smile and said, "Knock yourself out." He blinked at her for a moment, not truly comprehending why she had handed him the bedpan when he heard her mutter again.

This time he managed to catch the words, "Okay, so mind control is out. That's...different." before she fell silent again and seemed to be waiting on him. He chose to ignore her strange musings for the time being and instead focused on what he wished to ask her.

Deciding that he should start at the beginning with something simple, he began asking his questions. "What is your name and age?"

"Mizuki Uzushio, I'm...uh...I-I can't recall how old I am..." She said as she looked down at her hands and frowned. Minato looked at her as if she were crazy for a second before simply stating,

"You look like your either nine or ten. I'd say closer to nine than actually ten. You're much too small to be ten."

"O-Oh. Then I guess I'm nine then."

"Would it make you feel any better if we summoned a doctor or nurse and asked them to see how old you are?"

"Uh...no thanks. I don't like doctors much."

"Or hospital's either I bet." Minato said with a slight grin. The girl merely looked at him with a peculiar expression on her young face, before looking away from him.

She sighed and muttered, "Just ask your stupid questions."

"As you wish, Mizuki. Second question, are you a shinobi? And if so, why did you come here?"

"Shinobi? No. I am not a shinobi. As for where here is...nothing looks familiar to me. Could you be a bit more specific?" She asked as she looked at him. Minato had a calculating look on his handsome face as he regarded her for a moment before saying,

"Are you sure that you aren't a shinobi, your chakra coils are very developed-"

"Do us both a favor, blondie, don't mention my fucking chakra coils or their development again." It he hadn't been taken aback by how she had spoken to him before, he kind of was now. To his knowledge children generally didn't swear. Especially young ones like Mizuki. Usually swearing didn't happen until a child was at least twelve. Or at least that had been his experience.

But that wasn't all that sort of shocked him, she had a certain edge to her tone that he _knew_ was meant to be a warning. A warning about what, however, he had no idea. But it was clear to him that getting a suitable answer about her being a nin would be like pulling teeth from a crocodile.

His hand may go into the mouth, it may even touch a tooth- but then...his arm would be ripped off by said crocodile. And he'd freak out and then bleed to death for his efforts.

So he'd leave that particular question alone again for the time being and come back to it later.

"Alright then," he said as he shifted in his seat for a moment to get more comfortable before saying, "You say that nothing here is familiar. So should I take it that you don't know where you are?"

"That is what I said."

"Yes, but I can tell that your _lying_." Minato said with a narrow eyed stare. The girl ooked away from him again and muttered,

"Not lying, merely omitting certain truths," Before then asking. _"Where am I anyways?"_

"Konoha village."

"Hn. Figures." Was all she said in response to his answer. It wasn't exactly the sort of reaction he had been expecting from her. She sounded so... _displeased_ by the very idea of being within his village that he wondered if maybe something had happened to her here once.

"You sound unhappy." He said, hoping that maybe she might open up a bit and tell him why.

"I visited once when I was about five."

"Oh? Did something happen?"

"Yeah a group of drunks caught me playing with a stray kitten and beat the hell out of me for nothing. I've been less than impressed with how your people conduct themselves ever since."

Minato mentally cringed at her reply to his question. _Oh ow_. No wonder she seemed less than happy to be in the village. Minato thought before deciding to move on to another question. "Do you have any family here in the village? Someone that I can contact?"

The girl was silent for several heartbeats, making him wonder if perhaps she was an orphan or something when he finally heard her ask in a slightly hesitant tone, "D-Do you know anyone by the name Kushina?" And felt as if the blood in his veins had just turned to ice as he stared at her hard for a second before promptly getting up and walking out of the room and slamming the door shut again behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

The moment that the Yellow Flash was no longer in the room with her, Naru or rather- Mizuki, let out a breath that she hadn't even realized that she had been holding and then scrubbed her face with her hands.

The sudden reappearance of her home, her village- the place that she had been born in and died within- was...well shocking would be putting things mildly. The sudden shift in her reality was _staggering_. Painfully so.

And the weight that now rested on her shoulders- whereas once before she had welcomed it, reveled in it even- had suddenly become crippling to her. She didn't want this burden only to fail at carrying it as she should have again. Unlike before, when she had died, she knew that there would be no third time around should she fail.

There would simply be more blood, more pain, more death.

And the thought of those things and the part that she had played in them before, made her want to cry. Before the fourth war had started, she had been captured by Madara for a very, very short amount of time. However before she had somehow managed to escape him- something that she now realized had been far too easy- it had however been long enough for the Uchiha bastard to place her within a genjutsu that had more or less overwritten everything that had essentially made her her.

Her mind, her soul, her heart- all of them had fractured into pieces making it easy for him to manipulate her mind and body to his will.

After all what army expects their general to turn on them and begin cutting them down in droves?

Suddenly feeling sick to her stomach as various faces flashed through her mind, Naru did the only thing that she could think of right then- she leaned over the side of the bed and vomited.

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After Minato was finally able to flag down a nurse and demand some blood be drawn from the girl to be tested against Kushina's DNA, he then settled down to pace a little bit as he thought.

Could the girl be Kushina's child? Was it even possible? True enough his late girlfriend had gone on several seduction missions and had had to sleep with several people- why even in the last year in a half or her life- she had taken such missions.

So he supposed that it was entirely possible that the girl that he had found was indeed Kushina's daughter. But if that were true... _why_ had she never told him about her?

Was it because she had been so young when she had birthed the child? Or perhaps she was ashamed of the fact that she had born another's offspring before his own? He supposed that her young age might have had something to contribute to things as well.

After all she had died when she was fifteen.

And given the child's current age, he would say that _if_ the test came up positive then Kushina had likely had the child several months before her death.

Scrubbing his face with his hands, he paused for a moment when a nurse came running by him to enter the girl's room, causing him to narrow his eyes slightly as he tried to think of what to do if the test came up positive. If it did, he couldn't just turn the girl away since she was likely the last of the Uzumaki bloodline, and as such had special chakra.

No- she would have to be given a place to stay, clothing, food, money to get what she needed, access to the academy. But more than that- he would have to hide her from the bastards within the shinobi council to assure that they didn't make any attempt to grab her and use her for their own purposes.

And to really make sure that she stayed happy, healthy and whole- someone of greater influence would have to take her in and possibly adopt her.

Someone that the shinobi council and Danzo wouldn't be able to easily get around or bend to their will. It would be the only way to protect her.

And he did want to protect her... He didn't exactly understand the reasons _why_ right now, but the mere thought of any child of his late girlfriend falling into the wrong hands both sickened him and had his blood _boiling_ in his veins.

 _Oh_ \- if the blood test came back indicating that the kid was Kushina's, he would fuck up anyone who so much as dared to lay a finger on her in a bad way!

The door to the room opened again and Minato paused his pacing so that he didn't accidentally run into the nurse whom was half in and half out of the room speaking to Mizuki. "Alright sweety, don't worry. I'll go get something to settle your stomach and help you rest and find some stuff to clean that mess up."

Minato cocked his head as he heard a somewhat almost inaudible word or two from Mizuki, and saw the nurse smile kindly at the child as she said, "Don't apologize for something that can't be helped, sweety. Just hang out right there and I'll be back in a second with those meds."

Minato heard a faintly muttered, "Thanks..." Come from inside of the room as the woman finally stepped completely out the door to the room and gently shut it behind her.

"Is everything alright?" He found himself asking before he could really stop himself as the nurse looked at him and then nodded her head.

"Yeah, the poor think just had a little accident is all."

"An accident?" Minato said stupidly. Almost as if he were unable to comprehend a child Mizuki's age having any sort of accident unless it was one that involved foul play. But then perhaps he merely thought that way because he had forgotten that when he had been the child's age- he'd still technically been a bed wetter because he'd suffered from chronic nightmares.

"Yes. Sweety got a little sick and threw up a few times."

"Oh." Minato said as the nurse brushed by him and disappeared around the corner. Hopefully to get those meds for Mizuki that she had promised. From the sound of things, the girl apparently needed them badly.

Not long after the nurse left, another woman carrying an all too familiar little purple colored plastic basket with needles, alcohol swabs, clear glass tubes, a long rubber ribbon thingy, and orange labels and band-aids walked past him and entered the room.

She must have been in there all of five minutes before finally walking back out again and then looking at him. "You want a rush on these?" She asked holding up the four large tubes of brownish-red blood.

Minato gave the woman a peculiar look and then nodded his head as she placed Mizuki's blood within the basket and then started walking after telling him that the blood work should be done within an hour or so.


	5. Chapter 5

Minato decided to stick around just long enough to check on Mizuki one last time and get the papers from the blood test and then he wanted to go home, eat, shower and change his clothing. He didn't think that was too much to ask. However what happened once he was handed the results of the blood test was- he went home and sat himself down at his kitchen table and began looking at the results.

Just as he had both _hoped_ and _feared_ \- Mizuki was Kushina's child. The DNA test was a hundred percent match.

And while there appeared to be no way to tell if Mizuki's biological father was still present- due to the fact that her DNA had far more strands to it than an average person's should have. Which in some way corrupted her DNA so that finding her biological father would be a rather pointless endeavor unless Mizuki herself, told someone who he was and where he was.

But somehow- he doubted that the kid would be terribly forthcoming. In fact, she'd probably laugh in his face or something if he even bothered asking. Something told him that she was at least _that_ much like her late mother.

Then again...it was entirely possible that something may have happened and the man that may have been her biological father was either missing on assignment or dead. Perhaps that was what had drove Mizuki to come to the leaf village in search of Kushina? Had she been scared that something had happened to her father and had come to ask for help?

Or had she simply come to meet with Kushina and perhaps develop a relationship with her?

After all, aside from the nins that had taken and killed his girlfriend- it wasn't like anyone outside of the village knew that the red head was gone.

The third Hokage and shinobi council had shushed up Kushina's death the very _second_ that they had learned of her body being dumped outside of the village walls. In order to stop the public, and those whom had cared about the girl from going after the enemy nins seeking vengeance.

Especially since her death had been meant to act more or less as a declaration of war.

Of course that had been mere weeks before the third great shinobi war had taken place. And by that time, Kushina's body had been laid to rest in an unmarked grave, and she had been classified as merely...missing until the end of the war a year in a half later.

But by then, the damage had been done. In more ways than one.

Setting the papers aside, Minato rested his chin on top of his folded hands and stared blankly at the pale blue wall of his living room. He needed to think carefully about what step to take next.

Mizuki, was probably- due to her more mature chakra coils- an excellent ninja for one so young. Not only that but she probably had the same rare chakra that her mother had had- and if that was indeed the case...Danzo would be starting to sniff around her the second that he learned of her being in the village.

Not only that but the shinobi council could prove to be bothersome as well. They may suggest retiring her and simply letting her become an ordinary civilian so that she could live long enough to be placed in a breeding program. After which her life could very well become hell on Earth.

Shinobi breeding programs were meant to preserve blood lines of particularly strong shinobi. One would take an exceptionally strong female nin, retire her from active duty and then she would be passed around from one person to another as if she were a party favor and bred by multiple males until she was either taken as a wife, or popped out so many children for the village that her usefulness finally came to a very painful- and bloody end.

Frankly, had Kushina survived even one more year past what she had- the chances of her being placed in such a program would have been very strong.

He didn't want that to happen to Mizuki.

So if he allowed her to stay, he would have to find some way to carefully hide her away behind the protection of someone very formidable. Someone who's mere word could shut the fucking council and Danzo down.

Unfortunately, Sarutobi-sama was retired as a Kage. His help would have been most useful.

Perhaps Minato could fake documents stating that when Mizuki reached a certain age she was to marry someone? It would have to be someone of some standing among the village shinobi otherwise there would be trouble. Kakashi maybe? No- the boy was at present too busy sewing his wild oats to even look at a child like Mizuki with anything more than friendly contempt.

Itachi Uchiha would be a nice pick. But he would have to speak to the boy personally so that he understood his role.

Reaching up to massage his temple in the hopes of staving off the ache beginning there, Minato sighed. There was so much to do and a very short time in which to do it in. He would have to speak with Itachi as soon as possible. Today if he could.

Maybe he could push the paper work through quickly if he had the boy meet with Mizuki within an hour or so. Which meant that he needed to go and shower right now and then leave to go by his office for the documents. Pushing himself up from his seat, he started walking and shedding clothing as he made his way to the bathroom.

He needed to hurry. Every moment he spent second guessing himself was another second that Mizuki was in danger. And that was _not_ acceptable to him.

Fifteen minutes later, he was out of the shower, dressed (though not exactly dry just yet) and was slipping on his gear and his shoes as he headed for the door, completely forgetting his silk robe as he went.

He had shit to do and even less time to do it in now. He just hoped that Mizuki was alright for the time being.

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Mizuki waited a while just to make sure that no one else (doctors and nurses) would enter her room before creating a shadow clone and then getting out of her bed and walking over to the locker against the wall and finding it strangely full of various clothes and some new shoes, toys and hair ties as well.

 _He's been busy_. She thought, bemused by the stuff stuffed in the narrow locker as she looked over the different shirts, blouses, pairs of pants, shorts, and even a few skirts before picking a nice violet colored long sleeved shirt and a black skirt with little ruffles around the hem and then grabbed the pair of shoes present and closed the locker so that she could dress herself.

One she was dressed, she carefully removed the IV and needle from her and slowly made her way over to the window before deciding to create a shadow clone so that she wouldn't exactly get into trouble.

Despite everyone (again doctors and nurses) telling her that she needed to lay back and relax, she simply couldn't. At least not quite yet. First she needed to go look around the village and see just how different it and it's people were from what she remembered.

This was one of the most basic rules of intel gathering.

Observe the people, and take note of everything that you could. Even the smallest detail could in the long run save your life, no matter how dumb you believe said detail to be.

Slipping out the window, she was careful to shut it just enough to give the illusion of still being closed so that she could sneak back in later if she felt she needed too and then used a technique akin to her father's to vanish from the hospital grounds and reappear half a mile away and nearly collapsed at how _tiring_ it was to use that damn jutsu in her current body.

She would have to work on building up her strength again and only use the jutsu in life or death emergencies if she was going to keep it from tearing her body apart.

Straightening her spine for a moment, she looked around to get her bearings and noted that she was close to the area where Ichiraku was once located and decided to jump down and walk around for a little bit.

What could the harm be, right?

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Minato walked into the Uchiha district as if he owned the place. Which...technically he did as the current Kage, and quickly made his way through the semi crowded streets towards Fugaku Uchiha's home in the hopes that the man and his eldest son would be present.

"Hello Minato-sama!" An elderly woman called out in a friendly manner, causing him to nearly trip over his own feet in his hurry to turn and wave to her. Not wanting the poor lady to think that he was just blatantly ignoring her.

He was already in a bad mood thanks to Danzo and several of the council members showing up at his office, demanding to know whatever he could tell them about the girl he had found, when he had been collecting the necessary papers to fake an arranged marriage for Mizuki.

He had to say- those unscrupulous assholes moved far faster than he had given them credit for. However he was still faster- if the fact that he had broken one man's jaw and dislocated his leg and attacked another three people with one of his kunai was any indication of his mood at all.

So- with that done in the span of seconds, everyone had wisely backed off for the time being. But he knew that the next time they demanded answers of him- he would have no choice but to tell them what he could.

However hopefully by then the paperwork will have gone through and Mizuki will be legally/illegally engaged to someone who would suite his purposes perfectly in protecting her.

Rounding the next corner, Minato saw Fugaku's family estate come into sight and damn near cheered. Or at least he might have if not for the fact that Itachi Uchiha hadn't suddenly dropped out of the clear blue sky overhead and nearly landed on him causing him to squawk in a most undignified manner and throw the papers up in the air in surprise.

"Hokage-sama-" The twelve year old said by way of greeting him as Minato waited for his heart to _stop_ _trying to escape his chest._

Finally once his heart had settled down again into a semi normal rhythm, Minato turned to the boy who was staring at the papers littering the ground all around the two of them and said, "Itachi. Nice to see you. How have you been? Have you killed anyone lately with that damn sneak attack of yours?" As he started to pick up the papers while the boy smirked at him and replied.

"Just you. Did you know that you scream almost like a girl?" Minato shot the brat a glare that promised pain if he ever said that to his face again.

"Well who wouldn't scream when an unknown assailant drops down on them out of the sky like that." The blond responded. Itachi merely smirked at him a little more and then turned and started walking away.

By the time the Hokage left his home today, Itachi would have jumped him at least three more times. Minato knew this since it was his pattern of behavior. And yet the man still stupidly came to his home as if Itachi wouldn't use him to practice his stealth.

The Uchiha prodigy doubted that he would ever understand what went on in that weird alien space between the Hokage's ears.


	6. Chapter 6

"What can I do for you today Minato-sama?" Fugaku asked as he, his wife, his son and the Hokage sat down at the dinning room table. Minato sighed and then placed the papers that he had brought with him on top of the table where the Uchiha clan head could see them before he even began speaking.

"I have a great favor to ask of your son. This favor could...double as a mission, I suppose." Minato said as he watched Itachi's relaxed pose suddenly change to that of one who was now paying very close attention to everything being said.

The boy sat up a little bit straighter. His dark eyes staring a hole right through him as Minato continued speaking, "I have as of three days ago, come into possession of a young girl who possesses Kushina Uzumaki's rare chakra. In fact I just learned today that the child is Kushina's biological daughter. Because of this and how things are within the village- I would like to request Itachi's help in protecting her by having him sign these fake documents for an arranged marriage between the two. The contract will only last until she is either old enough or strong enough to protect herself from being placed within the village's breeding program, or she is married off to someone who can help protect her."

Itachi and Fugaku both practically gaped at him while Fukagu's wife, Mitoko looked back and forth between her young son and the Kage.

It was true that the village breeding program was a terrible thing to be placed within, especially for young girls and women who had never known the touch of a man. In fact- the program was incredibly brutal to those who maintained their innocence passed a certain age.

Mikoto, herself had very nearly been killed by the sheer brutality of the program before her husband had taken her out of it by marrying her before she could be bred any more than she had already been.

She had spent six years in the program and had birthed multiple children, most of whom had been stillborn due to the terrible treatment she had suffered and the living conditions that she had been placed within. After all the breeding program wasn't just about birthing children.

It was a way to break the kunoichi of the village and strip them of their will through nothing more than glorified rape and abuse. Making them into nothing more than willing/unwilling whores and playthings for the higher ups.

It was sickening really how the village sometimes treated it's own. Mitoko kept hoping that the program would be disbanded, but the council kept it going with Danzo's backing.

If Minato believed that the girl- no- Kushina's daughter to be in danger of becoming it's next victim, then she would encourage her son to do the right thing and help. Even if it meant he one day actually wed the girl himself.

"Dear..." She started to say as her husband turned his head to look at her. Understanding very well what she was thinking, he held up a hand to quiet her before she could start in on one of her many, many rants about how disgusting the men of the village were to subject innocents to such things.

He didn't think the Hokage would appreciate being lumped in with the rest of the trash.

"Before we agree or not, may I ask some simple questions?"

"Yes, of course."

"Does the council and Danzo already know of the girl?"

"Yes. In fact they paid me a visit earlier demanding answers."

"Did you give them any?"

"I sent several to the hospital and then came right here."

"And what of the girl? Is she aware of what is going on?"

"Mizuki. Her name is Mizuki and the answer is no. I doubt that she knows anything is going on. If she did, she'd make the mistake of running away and would likely wind up captured and in Danzo's hands by the end of the hour." Minato said with a tired sigh.

"I see," Fugaku said as he reached over and placed a hand on his pregnant wife's swollen stomach and absently rubbed it for a moment. "How old is this child?"

"Nine... I think." Minato said with a slight frown as the Uchiha cocked his head at his words and then asked,

"What do you mean, you think?"

"It's somewhat difficult to explain. But I think something really bad happened to Mizuki on her way here to the village. When I found her she was unconscious and her chakra...her very life force was so incredibly weak... On top of that she had suffered various injuries as well. When she woke up and I asked her some questions, one of which was the question that you just asked me- she seemed puzzled and looked down at her hands and frowned as if she had never seen them before. She didn't seem to know what her age was, though she and I both seemed to think that nine years of age was fairly close to a true answer. So it's the one that she used. She appears much too small to be anything less. Though you probably wouldn't know that from her vocabulary."

"Oh? So she's got a mouth on her huh?"

"No. Not really. I think she merely falls back on what she's learned when she's extremely upset or surprised. The rest of the time she can hold a civil conversation pretty well."

Fugaku chuckled slightly at this. He could just imagine the things that the child had already said in the Hokage's presence.

"Very well. We would be happy to help you keep the young lady from the council's grip. Hand Itachi the papers and he will sign them."

"Yes! Thank you!" Minato said as he quickly handed the papers over and then sat there waiting as Itachi signed them so that he could take them back to the tower to be processed while he spoke a little more with Fugaku.

While he was talking with Itachi's father, he completely missed the look of mischief that suddenly crossed the boy's face as he picked up the pen that Minato had pushed across the table along with the papers, and began signing the different documents as quickly as he could.

The action drew his mother's attention to him. So much so that she actually leaned over his shoulder and gaped at what he was doing before quickly slapping a hand over her mouth and walking out of the room so that no one would hear her laughter and question her about it.

Oh- her son may have just dug his own grave!

The little genus had decided to sign the papers alright. Just not in the way that had been anticipated.

On each line that he signed, instead of his own signature- he placed Minato's... And once Minato saw what he had done, he was sure to skin him alive, but until then, Mikoto would laugh until it hurt.


	7. Chapter 7

The moment that Itachi finished signing the papers, the boy excused himself and then disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving both Minato and Fugaku sitting there wondering what had been so urgent that he had more or less fled his own home. Of course the second that Minato concluded his talk with Fugaku and began to gather up the papers for the arranged marriage, he should have known something was wrong.

He really should have.

After all, Itachi never ran from anything, not even Minato on his worst day, during his worst temper tantrum- and he'd had some truly bad ones in the past four years- one of which had led to someone's house burning down! Still Minato thought nothing about Itachi's hasty disappearance until he had decided to quickly check and make sure that he had signed everything.

Every T had to be crossed, every I carefully dotted.

He knew what most of his shinobi did when it came to paperwork, and frankly cutting corners with something so important was not acceptable.

However the moment he scanned the first page and saw, not Itachi Uchihas name, but his own- forged onto the papers in his hands- several things when through Minato's mind all at once. One of which was the capture and dismemberment of one...Uchiha brat. Another was, _oh dear gods- how am I supposed to explain this to Mizuki?_ Promptly followed by, how much do I have in my savings account to buy a decent ring?

Maybe if he got one nice enough the kid wouldn't attempt to _murder_ him in his sleep later on after he explained to her (due to Itachi's shitty sense of humor) that he was now technically her betrothed and they would be living together until she either got strong enough to protect herself from Danzo and the council, or she married.

Which was also followed by more than a little bit of panic at the thought of having to live with and play house with the kid. She was his dead girlfriends daughter for fucks sake! He didn't want to look at her everyday and wonder about what could have been.

He did that enough thank you very much.

"Minato is everything okay?" Fugaku asked as she noted the stiff way that the blond was sitting as well as how he was staring at the papers that his son had signed.

Curious as to why his Hokage was suddenly zoning out like this, the Uchiha clan head, leaned over and peeked at the papers tightly clasped in the blond's hand and nearly choked on his own tongue the second that he saw Minato's signature instead of his son's.

"Fugaku..."

"Hai, Hokage-sama?"

"I'm going to murder your son." The blond said as he slowly, very slowly by the looks of things, seemed to finally return to his senses and lower the papers back to the table where he simply sat them down and then jumped to his feet and growled, "Guard those documents with your life." And then was gone.

No doubts to go chase down Itachi and kick the shit out of him.

Not long after his wife came back into the house from whatever she had been doing outside, Fugaku asked, "Did you know what our son was doing?" Mikoto nodded her head and bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing about it all over again.

"You know that our son will likely wind up dead by our Hokage's hands." It wasn't a question. Merely a softly stated fact.

"Probably."

"You don't seem upset that Minato may very well get his hands on our boy."

"I'm not. Itachi is much to smart to stand still and let him strangle him just for pulling this stunt." Mikoto said as Minato suddenly reappeared with an angry scowl on his handsome face.

"Well? Did you find him?" Fugaku asked curiously.

Minato growled like a rabid dog as he leaned down and picked up the papers before then saying, "The second he gets back from wherever he went- you tell him that he is on my permanent shit list." And with that the Kage was gone again before either Uchiha could so much as respond.

He needed to quickly push the paper work through and then go ring shopping, and then go explain this debacle to his new fiancé and hope that instead of taking things out on him, she might just join him in his newest endeavor to destroy Itachi Uchiha.

Who knew, maybe they could use that as a bonding experience. Stranger things _had_ happened, he knew. He held part of one of those stranger things in his fucking hands.

Deciding to go by one of the best jewelry stores in the village, Minato stopped by the same place he had once bought his gifts for Kushina and sighed in irritation as he reached for the door and silently slipped inside and began to scan the displays.

"Hokage-sama! Hello, how are you?" The owner of the shop, an elderly man in his sixties greeted as he walked out of the back. Minato's eyes flickered to the elder for a moment and he let as much of his anger and irritation as he could, melt away.

"Hello Hikaru-san. I've...been busy. You?" Minato said somewhat awkwardly.

The elder smiled at him and then said, "I've been well. I retire in another month or so. Doomed to spend out the rest of my days in leisure, playing with my new dog and my grandkids. What about you? Have you finally decided that life is too short to spend every waking moment alone, pining for the one that you lost?"

Minato shot the man a slightly less than nice look and merely got a grin as a reaction to it as he slowly said. "Come now boy, I'm not wrong. You are still a young man, you need someone to help heal your heart and fill your days with joy and happiness. Don't you want a woman and children of your own?"

"At this point my greatest aspiration is to die at thirty." Minato deadpanned as he looked away from Hikaru as the elder laughed at him.

"Well, that is a strange thing to aspire for. But to each his own. What can I do for you today, son?" Hikaru asked. Minato fought the sudden urge to have a panic attack. A really, really bad one that would likely leave him either unconscious or in a temporary vegetative state on the floor of the shop as he muttered that he needed an engagement ring and a wedding band, and maybe a set of pearls.

Though he didn't exactly say what those were for.

Hikaru looked at him funny for a second or so before his features practically lit up like a fireworks display at a festival and he quickly said, "Of course, of course, my boy! Quick over here, let old Hikaru take care of you."

Minato fought the urge to tell the elder just how wrong that last part he'd spoken sounded to him, but somehow he managed to resist. It wouldn't do well to offend old Hikaru, especially since he was one of the people that actually knew where Minato lived and could show up at any time day or night and scare the hell out of him.

"Now- do you know the lady's favorite color?"

"I...uh...no."

"What color are here eyes?"

"Violet. _Deep violet_."

Hikaru made a humming sound as he walked over to a display across the room where he had a bunch of rings and quickly scanned the items in the case before pointing some out to Minato. "Alright, here are three small diamond rings, some sapphires, amethysts, some rainbow moonstone and opal..."

"Do you see any that tickle your fancy?"

"I see a diamond and a sapphire."

"Alright! Which one do you want to see?"

"Is it alright if I see both?"

"Sure, sure," Hikaru said as he pulled the rings that Minato had pointed out to him out of the case and then handed them to him and waited a moment before asking, "Which one do you think is the better ring?"

"I can't decide, so I may have to take both of them." Minato said with a frown.

"Well, that isn't a terrible idea, after all whoever is getting the ring needs to like it. She'll hopefully be wearing it for quite some time."

"Alright...the both of these, and I saw a silver and diamond chip band. I'll take that one as well and also the pearl set."

"What color?" Hikaru asked as he fetched the diamond chip band that Minato had been talking about.

"White."

"What kind of set should it be? What kind of metal do you want it to have?"

"A necklace and earring set. Silver. The person that I'm getting these for is...young. And I want her to have some pearls to dress up with if she wants." Minato said knowing that he'd have to take Mizuki out on dates and such off and on just to make sure that no one questioned whether she was his fiancé or not.

If there was no question that he was courting the girl until she was old enough to wed, then no one would be able to call him on his shit and take her away from him.

Hikaru vanished for a moment and then returned with a biggish blue velvet box and showed Minato the pearls to make sure that he would be satisfied with them and smiled a little bit at the almost absent way that the man nodded his head.

"Alright, if there is nothing else-"

"There isn't. That's everything that I need for now."

"Then I'll go ahead and box these and ring them up."

"Thanks." Minato said as he handed over the three rings and watched as the man took them and the pearl set and began ringing them up and boxing them in variously colored boxes so that Minato would be able to tell the difference between each one.

Something that the blond greatly appreciated since he already felt as if his nerves were frazzled more than they should be. Once Hikaru finished up, Minato payed for his purchases and then thanked the man again and then quietly left to go get a few more things for his future...wife.

He needed to get her some more clothing, shoes, ect. And while he would much rather wait until she was released from the hospital and then go shopping with her, he knew that he couldn't just yet. Which meant that he needed to work faster to get her settled into his home before anyone started asking questions about her whereabouts that he didn't feel like fucking answering.

Besides, he would likely have more than a mountain of paperwork once he finally went back to the office so being able to take Mizuki shopping and learn more about her would have to take a backseat to his work as the Hokage. At least for a little while.

Though he might be able to get away with sneaking out for walks, to eat lunch, or even dinner with her occasionally. Which would be enough for now.

He was on his way to a few local clothing stores when he saw a little girl with strawberry blond hair- wearing the very same clothes that he had gotten for Mizuki to wear and damn near died of a stroke from the sheer shock.

There, in the middle of the crowded street just a short ways away from him, was his new fiancé...

Growling again, he released a good amount of killing intent causing the people around him to give him a wide berth to avoid him, as Mizuki turned her head to look at him as he walked over to where she was standing and suddenly grabbed her small hand in his and then began to drag her along with him.


	8. Chapter 8

Minato moved quickly and with purpose as he semi dragged his startled fiancé behind him until he reached a decent place to duck into. It was the Akimichi clan's Korean BBQ restaurant, and due to the fact that he was someone of high position within the village- along with the fact that he liked frequenting their place as much as he could as often as he could.

The private rooms in the back part of the restaurant had been built with special shinobi made privacy seals that activated whenever ninjas in need of speaking about something like politics, laws, missions ect- decided to drop by for a good meal and to chat about something that was really no one else's business.

Which naturally made it the perfect place to go so that he could explain his- or rather _their_ current situation- with Mizuki in relative peace. Waving to Shion, as he walked passed him, he grabbed two menus, somehow managing not to slow down or even break his stride as he did so, and the made his way to the back of the establishment and all but tossed Mizuki into the room that he had chosen. And then grabbed a waitress that had been about to run by him and ordered two teas and then let her go and entered the room and carefully closed the door as he stared down at the girl.

To say that he was upset would be understandable, after all he had found her injured and barely clinging to life just three short days ago, and yet- here she was. Up and dressed in some of the clothing that he had left in the locker, and _wandering around the village unattended_.

Why any number of horrible things could have befallen her, and he likely never would have known it! At least not until he either discovered her missing or her lifeless corpse anyways.

There was a soft knock on the door causing him to turn away from the girl to open it. The waitress from before, had obviously noticed his foul mood and had felt that it was in everyone's best interest not to upset him further and had returned with his drink order pretty quickly, handed them over and then just as quickly ducked back out of the room and closed the door behind her.

The second that she was gone, Minato let out a long exhale and then walked over to the small table in the middle of the room and set one of the drinks down next to Mizuki's hand, causing the girl to quickly remove it from the table as she looked at him with wide violet eyes.

"Would you like to tell me what you are doing outside of the hospital?" He asked in a much calmer tone than he felt he should have used. It must have been because of the look she was giving him.

Like she expected him to just haul off and beat the hell out of her or something.

 _Is this how she reacts to simply being handled a little bit roughly?_ He wondered before thinking, _Or is this reaction_ _because she has suffered physical abuse before?_ If that were the case then he could hardly blame her for becoming a nin.

After all the only people who messed with nins were idiots and other nins.

"I hate hospitals." Was all that she bothered to say in her own defense.

"Be that as it may, it was an incredibly stupid thing to do. Tell me, did you sign yourself out or simply sneak out?" He asked as he propped his elbow on the table and rested his cheek in his palm.

"What does it matter? I'm out and you're pissed at me." She sounded like she didn't like the fact that he was upset with her. Perhaps she simply didn't like it when she got into trouble for something that others took advantage of daily.

Sighing, Minato looked away from her for a second as he said, "I'm not pissed at you. Upset, sure. But not pissed. Today's been a shitty day so far. And I suddenly find myself in a situation that I don't exactly like."

"So."

He looked back at her, his azure eyes fixating on her face. Did she just say 'so' to him? As if their current situation wasn't anything _important_ or _life_ altering?

"Okay now that remark has pissed me off," He said as he frowned at her before waving her off and then saying, "Nevermind. We need to have a long chat about our current situation."

Mizuki gave him a peculiar look and he set the papers in his hands on the table and pushed them over to her, blushing as he did so since he could think of no other way to begin to explain things to her.

He watched as she picked up one of the papers and began to read it all the way down to the- Minato internally cringed when he heard her say. "What the hell is this shit?"

"I-It's a marriage contract."

"Yes, I can _see_ that. My question is more along the lines of- Why are our names and signatures on it? I didn't sign this."

"No, but then you are underage and aren't truly expected too. Look, all I can tell you is that my signature being on there puts me both in a more favorable position in which to protect you, and an unfavorable one as well."

"Favorable because you are literally my shield. And unfavorable because you don't want this anymore than I do." _Clever_ _girl._ Minato thought as she asked, "You did this contract for the purpose of saving me from the breeding program didn't you?"

Okay, now she had his undivided attention as he stuttered out, "H-How d-do y-you know a-about the b-breeding program?"

"Please, the leaf village is notorious for how unwell they treat their women. Trust me when I say that the program is the least of your troubles."

Minato blinked at her, opened his mouth to say something, but then snapped it shut again as her words finally registered in his mind. What the hell did she mean by, the program was the least of his troubles? He wondered as she sighed and began going through the bag that he'd been carrying.

He must have accidentally dropped it when he had tossed her into the room, without noticing. Pulling out the variously colored little boxes, she opened each one and then looked at them before setting one of them aside and then closing the others and putting them back.

"These are nice. And as far as fiancé's go- I could do worse. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to go easy on you, nor that I have to like it." Minato merely hummed, not exactly sure what else could be said about the two of them being 'fake' engaged now. So he simply kept his mouth shut about it and instead asked her if there was anything that she would like to know about him.

She shook her head, a weird enigmatic little smile curving her lips as he finally handed her one of the menu's that he'd snagged earlier. "Here. You must be hungry."

"I'm starving."

"Order what you would like. You don't have to be shy." He said and almost regretted it when he caught the look on her pretty little face.


	9. Chapter 9

Minato sat across from Mizuki watching her put away enough food to qualify her as the unknown bastard child of an Akimichi clansman while he held a bowl of rice and a pair of chopsticks in his hand. She caught him looking at her as she stuffed another piece of meat in her mouth and quickly slapped a hand over her mouth, feeling subconscious that she may or may not have been chewing her food with her mouth open.

Well, when she bothered to chew anyways.

"Um... A-Are you okay?" Minato asked, wondering if perhaps she had eaten so much that her little stomach had finally decided not to take the torture anymore.

She finished chewing her food and then swallowed it down before bothering to answer. "Y-Yes. I just...haven't eaten anything in a really, really long time."

Minato cocked his head slightly as he studied her. She was just a tad bit on the thin side for a child her age. He wondered how long she had gone without a decent meal. He might have asked, but Mizuki beat him to it. "I think it's been about two in a half weeks since I actually ate something." Of course she didn't bother mentioning the sudden flash in her mind of killing one of her former friends and how she had dined on his kidneys and liver afterwards.

It would have ruined not just the both of their appetites but everything else as well.

Minato's eyes widened ever so slightly at the mention of how long she had been without food and started to ask how the hell she had managed to live so long when she said, "I finally finished off the last of my soldier pills about a week or so before I showed up here." Beating him to the punch yet again.

"O-Oh. Well, be that as it may- maybe you should slow down a little bit. I'm not entirely sure but I think that you forgot to chew most of the stuff you put in your mouth."

"Afraid that I'll choke, oh mighty Kage?" She teased him in a playful tone as she gave him a grin.

"Maybe a little bit."

"There's nothing to worry about. It's incredibly rare that I manage to choke on anything. Besides if I can swallow a metal and glass sink knob whole then actually food shouldn't be an issue."

Minato blanched a little bit at her words before stammering out, "W-Why w-would you s-swallow a s-sink knob?"

Mizuki shrugged her slender shoulders and made a noncommittal sound before finally saying. "I was two and my caretaker at the time was stupid enough to dare me to do it, thinking that the mere attempt would kill me. The dumbass. He lost a great deal because of that bet. Most of his pay check, his job- I think he was even forced out of the village by our...uh... _leader_. Besides, I don't make a habit of eating like this a majority of the time. I'm only doing it now because I'm starved and I need the vitamins and nutrients to help me regain the strength that I lost from blood loss so that I can heal up my injuries more quickly."

Her explanation sounded so logical, that Minato merely nodded his head slowly and then let her resume eating. This time he was a bit relieved to see that she was going a little slower and actually _chewing_ a majority of her food before she swallowed any of it.

Carefully setting his bowl aside for a moment, Minato looked Mizuki over for a second before noticing that she was fixing another- smaller plate of cooked meat and wondered what she was up too when she reached across the table and set it next to his rice and then said, "Rice won't keep you alive for long. Besides, I still have more than enough on my delux platters that you can afford to take some if you want."

"Oh, thanks," Minato said, unsure of what else to say when it occurred to him that food aside, he still needed to go clothes shopping for Mizuki. "Um...Mizuki...after we leave here, I'm going to have to go back to the office and push the paper work through and work on some other stuff like putting you in the academy and letting you familiarize yourself with the people. Maybe make some friends. I also need to give you some money to go get some clothing, and other things that you may need. I will also be giving you some extra to get no less than five formal kimono's, and accessories with. I want you to get something nice, for formal events since we need to establish a sort of..."

"Façade?"

"Yeah. I need you to follow my instructions to the letter about this, okay. Anything less would make people question the authenticity of our 'relationship'.

"I'll also send a summons to someone that I trust so that he or she can take you grocery shopping for food and then take you back to my place since that's where you will be living until you are older, okay."

She nodded her head in understanding and decided to quickly finish her meal so that she could get this damn day over with already.


	10. Chapter 10

Once they finished eating and Minato had paid for their meal, he and Mizuki started to leave when Mizuki finally realized that she wasn't wearing the ring that she had chose and quickly dug it out of the bag and slipped it on her ring finger as Minato checked his wallet for several moments before finally saying, "I think I'll have to lend you my credit card."

"That's fine."

"It is? Should I take it that you know how to use one?"

"My former village leader used to give me his when I needed to go out and get groceries, clothing, and pay for doctor's visits." Mizuki said, though she conveniently forgot to mention just how badly she had been treated on each of those trips. Not to mention how much she had to pay for even the most basic of services.

Minato blinked at her and then muttered about how he would love to meet her former village leader, nearly causing her to trip over her own feet and fall flat on her face as he was trying to hand her the card. Carefully righting herself she managed to take the card before she could actually fall over and then tucked it in the bag of jewelry that she was carrying.

"Is there a budget that I should be aware of?"

"No. But I do ask that you do take it a little bit easy on my bank account. I kind of like being able to eat and pay my bills."

"Fair enough." Mizuki said with a small grin as he nodded his head and then muttered something about who he should summon to help her when she reached out and grasped his sleeve between her fingers and lightly tugged to get his attention.

The second that he looked at her, she gave him a mischievous little smile and then summoned three shadow clones and simply watched his eyes widen mere moments before his jaw dropped open at the sight of her clones.

"T-That is a jounin level-"

"Jutsu? Yeah I know. Back in my former village there was this forbidden scroll that our leader kept under lock and key. I didn't know it was off limits and was conned by a chunin to steal it. But he never really expected me to be able to read, much less understand it. I taught myself the shadow clone jutsu, and maybe two others before he came to kill me and take the scroll. Fortunately for me, I had someone watching out for me who became a lot like an older brother. He saved me from being killed, and with his help- the two of us stopped the other guy and sent him away. Afterwards, the one whom had been watching out for me, put in a good word with me with the village leader so that he'd know that I didn't steal the scroll for the reasons that everyone first thought. Gramps was awful pissed at me, but he let my actions slide since I and the other guy managed to escape with our lives and return home."

"I see." Minato said awkwardly as he thought, I never realized how chatty she was before. Maybe it was simply her way of letting him know something about her aside from her name and such? "And what happened to the two of them?" Minato asked, though he already sort of suspected the answer to his question.

Mizuki cringed a little bit but said. "Gramps died defending the village. And Ruka...he to my knowledge is still alive somewhere. He was on a mission before our home fell to enemy nins. And he never really returned. We aren't exactly sure if maybe he died on the mission. Or if he possibly came home and found everything in ruins and simply thought everyone dead and left again to find a new place to settle down."

"You must miss him a great deal."

"More than most. But if he's still alive, and he's happy where he is, then I have no complaints. If anyone deserves happiness, it's him. Now if you will point me to some of the stores, I'll go and check them out and see about finding what I need."

Minato gave her a bemused look before he pointed out. "Even if I were to point you in their direction, your forgetting that you'll still need someone to point you to my place. And I dunno, maybe let you in."

"I can find it on my own and simply pick the lock." Mizuki said offhandedly as she started walking in the opposite direction as Minato, whom merely watched her through slightly narrowed eyes. He wasn't the only person who lived in his home, and he very much doubted that Kakashi would like someone picking the lock to the front door and entering when he was at home probably trying to rest up from his last mission.

It was on the tip of his tongue to call her back and tell her not to pick the lock on his door. Kakashi would probably attack her, but then decided not too. Let the brat learn the hard way if she must. It was no real skin off of his nose as long as Kakashi didn't kill her.

Though he supposed that sending Kashi a message to let him know about her and the fact that she would be living with them from now on, wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Shrugging his broad shoulders, Minato lifted a hand to run through his golden blond hair as he walked.

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Sighing as she paused in mid step to watch as Minato completely disappeared from sight, she shook her head for a moment and then started walking again in the direction of the clothing stores that she had seen earlier. She figured that she would need to go by the kimono store first since it would likely cost the most to get the stuff that he had told her to get.

The accessories, the little silk drawstring purses and tsumami hair combs would cost a little bit extra, but would be totally worth it, she supposed. However she didn't like kimono's. Now don't get her wrong, she understood that as the Hokage, any female that hung off of Minato's arm had to look a certain way at formal events.

Charities, political meetings and such.

However formal kimono's were such a pain to wear!

You couldn't walk in them, couldn't run in them when you needed too. The obis were usually tied so tightly that they restricted one's breathing in a seriously bad way. Not to mention any woman or girl with curves- because formal kimono's usually consisted of several heavy layers- made any and all curves on a gal's body disappear. Like poof! Gone!

In Mizuki's opinion men should be the ones to always wear the damned things.

They needed to suffer a little more than they already did in normal day to day life. Not only that, but maybe if they wore them and they decided to start some stupid pissing contest about who's cock was bigger- everyone would realize that in a multi layered kimono- it would be as if their cocks didn't exist.

Poof! Gone!

She could just imagine the state of panic that the males would fall into. Giggling at her own morbid thoughts, she paused outside of the shop where she would get the kimono's and took a moment to look at the displays in the windows. And she had to admit, they had some nice stuff.

She already saw at least one formal kimono that she would probably be buying. Huffing slightly, she reached for the door and then pulled it open so that she could slip inside.


	11. Chapter 11

The second that Mizuki entered the store, one of the ladies behind the counter greeted her with a warm smile and a semi loudly voiced, "Hello dear, can we help you with something today?"

Clearing her throat slightly Mizuki slowly nodded her head and then said, "I'm looking for some formal kimono's and some accessories."

The woman, smiled again and then slipped around the counter to walk over to her before asking, "How many layers should the kimono be?"

"Two." Mizuki responded automatically. Anymore than that and she would be stripping in public with the purpose of strangling the fourth Hokage with her damned obi. And if anyone tried to stop her or get in her way...well, she'd probably strangle them with her obi too.

The woman nodded and took a moment to look her over, taking note of things like her hair color, and eye color before she started speaking again, this time listing the various colors that might work for her. "Red, white, black, pink, violet, lavender, pale yellow and green. Perhaps some blue as well. You have very strange hair and eye coloring. What clan do you hail from?"

"No clan."

"Hn. I see. Well that is odd."

Mizuki shrugged her slender shoulders and meandered over to a table with tsumami hair ornaments and silk purses and found several that she liked already. Picking then up, she looked towards the counter and quickly asked if she could find some kimono's to match them and then went to lay them on the counter next to the register for when her shopping was complete.

Once that was done, she returned to where the woman helping her was standing and noted that she had already pulled out several kimono's. One was a black one with red butterflies along the hem of the skirt, and around the sleeves and the obi was black to match. The second one was a nice pastel yellow with a pink-ish purple magnolia flower pattern with leaves. The third one was a pale blue with white and pink cherry blossoms. The last kimono chosen was a glossy multi colored opalescent color with a lilac colored obi.

Mizuki liked the first one and the last one, but didn't think much of the others. The color schemes were simply terrible. "I like the black one with the butterflies and the opalescent one. But I...don't like the others very much."

"I see, well that can't be completely helped. I suppose that the colors simply don't match up very well." The woman said as Mizuki excused herself to look around a little bit more. Walking along some of the racks her sharp eyes caught sight of a sky blue kimono with pale pink lotus flowers that she quickly pulled from the rack and draped over her arm. The next one she found was a plain violet kimono.

No flowers, no butterflies. No pattern at all- and she loved it so naturally it came off of the rack as well.

Once she had them, she decided to get the last one at a different time and than made her way to the register where she laid them down and then quickly grabbed the unnecessary hair accessories and purses and then took them back to switch them out so that they would match the outfits.

After that, she paid for her purchases and then politely thanked the woman that had helped her and then left.

Her trip to the next clothing store barely lasted thirty minutes. If there was one thing Mizuki was good at it was getting in and out of places quickly. And since she didn't particularly like shopping for clothing of any kind- she was more than content to grab the necessities, toiletries, enough clothing (including undies and training bras- grrr) to get her through two in a half weeks at a time.

She didn't care much for skirts and dresses, but she maybe went a little bit overboard with the shirts, shorts, pants, socks, shoes and PJ's. But at least she wouldn't find herself running around the fourth's home butt naked if she started running out of something.

So...that was a plus, she guessed.

After that she hit the grocery store and bought only what she felt was absolutely needed. Especially since she didn't know how long it had been since the fourth had last gone shopping. She got enough food for five people (give of take) to go through in two or three months.

Walking out of the grocery store with her purchases, she glanced back at her shadow clones, all two dozen or so of them, each carrying more than their share of the stuff that she had bought and sighed as she began walking in the direction of the fourth's home.

Her only thought at that moment was that she hoped Minato had a decently sized fridge and freezer.

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Minato sat in his seat, back at the Akimichi Korean BBQ- back in one of the private rooms with Danzo, Homura, and Koharu. His azure blue eyes watching two of the three in the room with him from over the top of the Orange Fizz soda that he had had the foresight to snatch and bring with him otherwise he was pretty sure Danzo would have attempted to poison him again, via tea, like he had the last time the three had ambushed him and dragged him here for a little chat.

Watching Homura and Koharu pace around was like watching a pair of ping-pong balls bouncing back and forth.

Dizzying. And irritating all at once.

Luckily, they hadn't managed to ambush him before he'd had the time to finalize the paperwork for Mizuki's betrothal to him. So even if they wished to press the earlier issues that he had sent several of their people to the hospital for- the girl was safely outside of their reach.

And she would damn well stay there if he had anything to say about it.

Finally after several minutes of his bored staring someone finally decided to speak. "What you did earlier today was unacceptable as the Hokage. We out the council, your adviser's- we have certain rights to the information about the girl that you found. We need to know who she is, where she came from and so on."

Slowly lowering his soda from his lips a little bit, he growled out, "You only have the right to those things if I deem it so. And I don't deem it so, so you aren't getting anything from me. Besides, did you really think you'd get away with barging into my office and making demands _above_ your station? How was my reaction any different from what lord third would have done in my place?"

"Lord third is a more rational person-"

"A chump, you mean. Someone that you could easily push around all you like without any real fear of retaliation. Just because you have history with the man, doesn't mean shit to me. I'm not him, and I refuse to let you overstep yourselves."

"The child could be used for the better good of the village."

"In what capacity? As someone's fuck toy/breeder? Or as a weapon? Either way- _you aren't getting her_. I've already taken the necessary steps to see to it that she is safely _removed_ from either option, not to mention any other that you three can half ass cook up between you."

"You will give us the information that we want, Minato."

"Last I checked, I was the one who ran this village. Not the three of you and your lackeys. I don't have to give you anything. Now if your done wasting my time, overstepping your authority, I have better things to do that sit here and listen to any more of your shit." Minato said as he set his half finished drink down on the table and slowly got to his feet so that he could leave.

"Minato! We are not done here!"

"Yes we are, now let me make one thing perfectly clear before you decide to do anything more than you already have. _The girl is off limits_. If any of you dare try to find her, contact her, kidnap her, drug her and attempt to insert her into any kind of program, breeding or otherwise- I will come looking for you. Strip you of any power and authority you have and kill you as traitors to the village. And trust me- your deaths will be very painful, and very public. _I'm done playing_ _with you fools_." Minato said as he made his way over to the door of the room and unsealed it and slid it open before pausing just long enough to say from over his shoulder, "Oh, before I forget... Enjoy your stay in the hospital Danzo." And then slipped out of the room.

Leaving the three wondering what he meant when barely two minutes later Danzo doubled over in pain and came to the chilling realization that Minato had slipped something in his tea.


	12. Chapter 12

**Just so you guys know- you have some pretty fucking dumb ideas about my story. And since I've had a shitty few weeks, let me clear them up for you. BTW, you'll have to excuse the language in this message. I'm running a temp, my head hurts and I haven't rested in days...**

 **1) I do not write male Naruto stories. I am a girl. It is simply easier to write from a female point of view.**

 **2) Minato isn't going to be a pedophile. Mizuki will be legal before he so much as does anything sexual to her.**

 **3) If you want to get technical- this isn't even an incest fic. Mizuki's DNA was overwritten when she was pulled back in time by Kurama, making her father's DNA unknown. And making Minato a more ideal match for her than anyone else.**

 **4)From now on if someone is going to nag at me about stupid details- just stop reading my story and leave. I will write what I plan to write- I will not be bullied, guilt tripped, harassed or nagged into changing anything.**

 **If you don't like that- then leave and stop reading.**

 **Flames will not be tolerated, trolls will not be tolerated (let's face it people who troll others are cowards anyways) especially since they aren't brave enough to sign in like the rest of us.**

 **That is all.**

 **Enjoy the damn chapter.**

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The moment that Minato left the Korean BBQ, he decided that he'd had more than enough problems to take care of for one day- thank you very much- and he wasn't going back to the office today. Besides, he didn't really need to now that the paper work had been taken care of, and filed away so that no one from the council could get their filthy hands on it.

Besides that, he needed to make sure that Mizuki made it to his place before Kakashi got a bug up his ass and decided to do something... _unsavory_ to the girl. He also needed to make sure that she managed to get everything that she needed so that she could live with him comfortably for the moment.

Turning abruptly on his heel, he began walking in the direction of his home. Taking his time so that he could scan the shops, streets and other places for the little strawberry blond. Finally he saw her just a short ways up ahead of him with some shadow clones that she had summoned to help her carry her purchases.

Moving quickly, Minato's long legs ate up the distance until he finally reached her and carefully extracted several bags from at least four different clones before they dispersed and Mizuki turned to look at him for a moment.

"Thought you went back to the office." It wasn't exactly a question. More like she was attempting to point out the obvious.

"I did. I managed to get the papers filed before I was ambushed."

"Let me guess...Danzo and the others?"

Minato looked down at Mizuki oddly for a moment, wondering at how she seemed to know about Danzo and the others. After all she had only been conscious and actively walking around the village for a few hours. She'd have to be incredibly good at gathering info to learn even the little bit that she had hinted at to him already.

And while he hadn't exactly been suspicious about all of that before- he was kind of getting suspicious now. After all, she was a mere child. Not only that but an outsider to the leaf village. And yet she oddly seemed to know more about the village, it's happenings, inner workings and it's people than she was letting on.

"Mizuki...your not a spy or anything are you?"

"Huh?!" She started as she whipped her head around to look at him, her expression appearing to him, genuinely surprised. "Why would I spy on the village? It isn't like I have a village to go home to- or anyone that I can tell anything to."

"But how do I know that for sure?"

Mizuki sighed and stopped walking, causing him to stop moving as well as he looked down at her. His keen eyes studying her body language, taking in everything from her hung head, slumped shoulders and her tightly fisted little hands as they clutched the bag in her grasp.

He had always prided himself, even in his younger days, on his keen insight into a person's character and personality. Which is part of how he had managed to stay alive for this long. Usually he could look at a person and simply tell whether they were good or bad.

It was almost instinctual to him. Second only to breathing.

Yet with Mizuki, he tended to have difficulty reading her. It wasn't that he got bad vibes from her or anything. Far from it, she reminded him very much of her late mother. Her presence was...kind of soothing ready.

Despite her rude-ish personality and her mean mouth.

However ever since becoming Hokage, he hadn't been able to rely on his keen sense of insight as much as he had before. He wasn't even sure if he could afford to. He had a village to run, a council to fight with over control of almost every little thing, and people to protect dammit.

However this once, he could look at her and see what others didn't and probably never would.

Mizuki's heart and mind was littered with wounds. Perhaps far worse than the ones that her body had carried upon her arrival. She seemed to function okay. But that was just an illusion. He could tell how weary she was, which was appalling for one so young.

He already knew that she was the kind of person who laughed the loudest, no matter how badly she hurt. The kind of person who carried on with their chosen course no matter how much she bled.

She was what people meant when they spoke of the 'perfect' solider. It wasn't exactly the physical strength that was staggering. It was all internal.

 _So then why does the thought of all of this information disturb me so much?_ He wondered as he said, "Sorry. I shouldn't have asked such a thing. Though I won't lie and say that the thought hasn't passed my mind a time or two. After all, who would suspect a child of being a spy?"

Mizuki said nothing in response to his words, she merely started walking again, this time deciding to flat out ignore his presence altogether.


	13. Chapter 13

Three days later-

Minato sat at the dinning room table as Mizuki placed their meal before them and glanced over at his former student, Kakashi Hatake and inwardly cringed at the sight of the fourteen year old tied to his chair again this morning.

This was quickly becoming a daily occurrence that Minato wasn't sure that he totally approved of. But he had leaned quickly that when something upset his fiancé- it was in the best interest of those who wished to remain healthy, happy and whole- to stay out of the girl's way.

Something that Kakashi had yet to learn thanks to his canine-like instinct and mentality. Both of which were seriously working against him as far as Mizuki went. Especially since she didn't seem to like it overly much when he started marking territory within the house.

Starting, of course, with Mizuki's room since she was new.

Minato had awakened barely an hour ago to an ruckus of epic proportions only to come downstairs to find Mizuki dragging a net covered Kakashi down the hall, slamming his head and torso into every available surface as she went- before finally disappearing into the dinning room where she had apparently sat him down (none too gently if his yelping and growling was much to go by) and then tied him to his chair so that he wouldn't be able to move and piss her off any further.

After which she had stomped back down the hall to the stairs to see Minato watching her curiously as she moved passed him, grabbed a magazine and some toilet paper out of the bathroom and then proceeded to Kakashi's room and slammed the door so that he couldn't see what she was doing.

But since she sort of liked to read to occupy her mind while she tended to her business whenever she used the bathroom, Minato could more than guess what she had done. And Kakashi would be none too pleased by her little gift/gifts once he returned to his bedroom later.

So naturally Minato was hoping to stay out of the kids little territory war. Unfortunately, he had no real way of doing that unless he moved out for a week and let the two kill each other.

Come to think of it- didn't he have a 'fishing' trip coming up? If so, he could pack now and be gone for a week and come back to one or two corpses.

Glancing at Mizuki as she placed his omelet in front of his along with some freshly brewed coffee, he caught her eye and suddenly got visions of the village being razed to the ground by the two and decided that maybe the fishing trip could wait until the two were more used to each other and less likely to destroy the village while trying to kill each other.

A pity. He could practically hear the fishies calling to him.

Mizuki took her seat between him and Kakashi and didn't bother with the usual prayer or word of thanks. She merely dug into her food so quickly that Minato could swear that it was there, then he blunk, and...it was gone. And while he wanted to say something to her about her table manners again, he knew at this point that saying anything to her while she was pissed would only shift her anger and aggression towards him.

And frankly he wanted his bedroom to remain shit free for as long as possible, thank you very much.

Clearing his throat nervously he set his chop sticks down for a moment and then asked, "W-What are your plans today Mizuki?"

"Stuff," She said, her violet gaze flickering towards Kakashi who just curled his lip back from his teeth and growled menacingly. Mizuki, obviously took this for a challenge of some sort as she promptly sat back in her seat for a moment with an oddly, scarily blank expression on her face before then saying. "I think I'll clean a little bit. Run a few errands. Maybe kick a certain _dog_ off of a cliff. You know, normal stuff."

Minato gave a nervous laugh as he then looked at Kakashi and asked him the same. Kakashi's reply was to make a 'pesky girl' disappear. Something that Minato didn't doubt he would attempt at all once he was free and Mizuki's back was turned.

So instead he simply reminded Kakashi that he couldn't make her _disappear._ Nor could he unalive her- it wasn't allowed if he wanted to continue living in his home.

Naturally Kakashi _hated_ having his hands tied in more ways than one. And so he sat there in his chair, pouting when Minato suggested that if the two of them really wanted to do something to each other then they could all go to one of the many training grounds in the village and spar.

Kakashi's expression lit up like a fire works display. But of course he was probably still thinking that he could unalive Mizuki and somehow make it look like an accident.

Mizuki's reaction however was more...defiant. Perhaps even a little bit worried? She told the two that she wasn't interested in sparring, however Minato wasn't taking no for an answer.

He still had yet to try gauging Mizuki's skill level. So he figured that a nice semi friendly spar might help with that. Especially if Kakashi was helping him. After all, he knew that she was a shinobi. Her chakra coils were that of a grown woman in her twenties. Not that of a child with little to no knowledge and talent.

It took some doing, but Minato finally managed to wrangle her into a spar with him and Kakashi. So, after breakfast, everyone went about their normal routine of dressing, grabbing their gear if they had it, and then set out for training ground ten.


	14. Chapter 14

**Okay- just a quick word, in this chap Minato is trying to gauge Mizuki's skill level. And I sort of suck at fight scenes. So I will try doing this as a flashback. if it sucks- it's not totally my fault.**

 **So enjoy.**

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 _Mizuki didn't so much as say a word when they left the house. Nor did she open her mouth to complain once they reached training ground ten. Hell the girl didn't even say anything when Kakashi threw a kunai at her back when she seemingly wasn't paying attention._

 _However she surprised the two men by catching the kunai before it could make contact with her back, without even turning around and then spinning it around the tip of her index finger, sent it right back at Kakashi- clipping his vest with the blade before it embedded itself in the tree trunk behind the fourteen year old._

 _Causing them both to just stare at her and blink in- well one felt a little bit of curiosity/fascination and the other felt nothing but pure shock._

 _"Just for the record, I protest being here." Mizuki finally said as she slowly turned around to look at the two. Minato mentally shook himself from his stupor and then muttered._

 _"Noted," With a slight nod of his head before then saying, "Now lets move on. The rules of this spar are simple. It's two against one. You can use any jutsu that you deem necessary, but maiming, severely injuring, and killing your opponent is against the rules. Anyone who does any of those things can consider themselves on my shit list for life- Kakashi. Mizuki...you don't have any shinobi tools or weapons- I'll lend you a few of my kunai, some smoke bombs and a few explosive tags. Think you can make due with just those to work with?"_

 _"I don't need them."_

 _"Come on now, don't be that way. I want you to be able to adequately defend yourself." Minato said in a coaxing tone as he started to pull the items out when Mizuki said more firmly._

 _"I. Don't. Need. Them. And you should really worry more about yourselves instead of me."_

 _"I'm not worried about you." Kakashi growled in a snotty tone that caused Minato to smack him in the back of the head before turning his attention back to Mizuki and opening his mouth to argue with her a little more when she gave him an icy look that shut him up._

 _Sighing, Minato placed his weapons back in their holsters and pouches and then said in warning, "Have it your way. But don't come complaining to me when you get injured."_

 _"Ditto." Mizuki said as Minato then told the two kids to start and then vanished at the same moment that Kakashi did. He found a nice nifty place high up in the trees in which to watch the spar for a little while so that he could get some idea of what skills Mizuki possessed._

 _However upon attempting to search the girl out, he was puzzled to find her still standing in the clearing below with her arms crossed over her chest, her violet eyes were somewhat narrowed, and she had puffed out her cheeks as she looked around for a moment, making him wonder if she was trying to concentrate or something else._

 _Finally after a few moments, several kunai with explosive tags attached to them were thrown in her direction from where Kakashi was hidden._

 _Still she didn't move. No- she waited until the last possible second and then she disappeared as the clearing where she had been standing erupted in flames and spewed dirt. Leaving a few craters on the ground, below._

 _Turning his head, he took a moment to scan the area before he heard a loud, earth shaking **Boom** followed by Kakashi screaming obscenities as he came tearing out of the woods and out into the open just as fast as he could._

 _Curious to know what had his number one former student on the run like the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels, Minato leaned forward a little bit as Mizuki came running out of the woods and quickly caught up to Kakashi and reared back a hand and brought it down on the ground around his feet causing another ear splitting **Boom** as Kakashi was tossed up into the air somewhat haphazardly only to hit the ground again several feet away with a dull thud, where he lay in a daze._

 _Mizuki walked over to him and bent down to check him for a pulse, and once she seemed assured that he had one- she wasted no time whatsoever in pulling his dog tags off of him and using the chain to tie his wrists together before walking away and leaving him alone._

 _Returning to where she had been before the spar had started, she turned her back to him and then seemed to be attempting to search for him when he suddenly felt the air around him stir- barely giving him any warning at all before he was grabbed from behind and then thrown from his cozy little perch._

 _Causing him to land in a rather undignified heap on the ground at the base of the tree..._

(********************************************************************************************************************************************)

From what little bit Minato had seen during the spar, Mizuki possessed more than a little _monsterous_ physical strength that was akin to the sanin Tsunade- _without_ having to use chakra to physically enhance anything. And her fighting ability once he had managed to get to his feet and really test her, had been more than a little bit shocking.

Not to mention nerve wrecking.

His little fake 'fiancé' fought at a level that was more than just a little bit difficult to pin down.

Her ability tended to go from chunin, genin, special joinin, _kage level_ \- that right that had damn near caused him to collapse and simply stare at her in abject horror- to sanin level.

And though she tended to switch back and forth to adjust to the spar, he got the somewhat vague notion that she was _still_ holding back. However once he had had enough, he had called off the spar- mainly because he was beginning to fear for his life, much like Kakashi currently was.

Which was probably why he had escaped the training grounds and gone into the office uncaring for the moment that his body covered in various injures.

Sporting a broken nose and black eye and a split lip, some badly bruised ribs, a fractured wrist and leg- and was currently attempting to do something about his black eye while he stared down at Mizuki's small file and next to her skill level- he put a great big question mark along with a small note never to get on her bad side.

She'd probably, definitely murder him if he did.

His office door opened and a chunin walked in carrying an arm full of files only to pause as he finally took in Minato's appearance. "L-Lord Fourth? What happened?!"

Minato could only look at the chunin and say, "I had a bad experience with a tazmanian devil while on my way to work."


	15. Chapter 15

Several days after Minato, Kakashi and Mizuki had hit the training ground, the rumor mills were in full swing about how Minato had been attacked and injured by some _vicious_ animal.

Every time the man went out into public sporting his black eye and other injuries, he got looks of shock coupled with sympathy and even some of pity. But he took it all in stride. After all it was better to let the shinobi and civilians of the village believe that an animal had injured him and _not_ an damn near feral nine year old little girl.

Today had been just like every other day so far with the exception of Kakashi was now Mizuki's henchman (don't kid yourself- he became her henchman to keep her from murdering him after that little display of strength the other day) and she tended to abuse that fact terribly and make him do things that she didn't feel like doing. Like the grocery shopping, bringing Minato his home made bento lunches ect.

Minato might have become her henchman too, but well...how would it look for a man his age to be jumping and running around to the whims of a mere child. Usually shit like that only happened if there was a leggy, busty beauty in a overly tight leather corset and thong with a whip.

Yeah- someone like that could call Minato minion any day.

But that was neither here nor there at the moment, after work Minato had gone straight home to find that Mizuki had cleaned every damn corner of his home. Getting rid of many of his hidden (and much treasured) items from his travels with his former master, the toad sage Jiriaya. Although how she had managed to break the seal hiding those items, he didn't know. He wanted to know- but right now she was so disgusted with him that she wasn't talking.

 _At all._

Which is why she hadn't bothered to start cooking dinner for them and that had led to him sighing and grabbing the two kids and going out to eat at the usual place. Once in the usual private room just off the regular eating area, Minato sighed and _tried_ to allow himself to actually relax a little bit as Kakashi finally decided that he couldn't take the silence anymore and asked, "How was work, sensei?"

"Difficult. How was your day of being Mizuki's henchman?"

Kakashi glanced over at the girl and slowly said, "It was...fine."

"Better than when she sent you into the village without your mask while wearing a pair of panties on your head and nothing but a speedo?" Minato asked, watching as the teen cringed at the mere mention of _that_ particular fiasco. Kakashi had enough trouble with girls as it was, and Mizuki's little stunt had damn near caused a riot of pre pubescent girls to run almost literally unchecked through the village after Kakashi.

It was a damn good thing Minato had taught the kid or he'd be suffering through a shotgun wedding right now. Hogtied and gagged at the feet of some unknown girl with a greedy family.

Bleh.

"Mizuki." Minato started to tell her thank you for cleaning his house so well, but one glare from the girl seemed to silence him before he could say more than her name. He knew that she wasn't exactly in a great mood after coming across his- er...things, however he never thought that she would be upset with him to this degree.

Finally their food arrived and while Minato and Kakashi went ahead and dug in, Mizuki apparently had no desire to eat at all. Causing Minato to pause with his chop sticks half way to his mouth, a small frown marring his features as he studied her.

"Mizuki, I know that your...upset for some reason. But you should really try to eat something. You worked hard today, so you should sit back and enjoy eating out tonight, right?"

The girl didn't respond. She didn't even bother to look at him this time. She just sat there with her cheek propped in her hand looking at the wall.

This time, Kakashi tried. "Boss?"

"Yes Kakashi."

"You should eat something. I know that you haven't really eaten since yesterday morning."

"I'm not hungry." Mizuki said stubbornly as she started to slowly get up, her eyes were so focused on the wall that at first she didn't even realize that she had activated the gift that both Itachi and the Sage of the six paths had given to her after she had defeated Pein and gone after Sauske.

"Mizuki?"

"I...need to go to the restroom. Excuse me." She said somewhat hesitantly as she blinked and deactivated her ocular jutsu and quietly headed for the door and slipped out. The last thing that she needed was for Minato or Kakashi to notice much less actually _see_ her mismatched eyes.

Her sharigan and rinnegan were not for the village to use. They would only abuse the power anyways. Especially since she knew what would happen if anyone found out about them.

She would be handed over to the village breeding program to breed children capable of using the same jutsu whether Minato said or did something or not. But since it was a very particular gift that didn't dwell within her specific bloodline- there was no chance of her ever birthing children with the same ocular jutsu that she possessed.

Sadly the shinobi council and Danzou wouldn't understand what the problem was. And would attempt to force the jutsu to show within the children she was forced to birth through the program. They would fail and kill the children and then blame her for it all.

Saying that she had somehow sealed the justu within her so that she wouldn't have to share the power.

But they would only be half right there.

She had no desire to curse any future generation of Uzumaki blood with such a jutsu. Not when it would make them more of a target then they would already be.

People would come far and wide just to kidnap then and kill them to take their eyes.

Which was just another thing that she needed to stop if she was going to fix things.

Walking through the crowded restaurant she paid no attention to the thrum of conversation going on around her and instead headed towards the three hidden root member's that she had seen, and sensed on the other side of the wall when she had been in the back with the others.


End file.
